Two friends who coincidentally had the same tattoo have found out that they are actually biological sisters.
Julia Tinetti, 31, and Cassandra Madison, 32, first met in 2013 when the pair were working at Russian Lady Bar in New Haven, and it was there that they discovered that they were both adopted from the same country and had a tattoo of the Dominican Republic.
In an interview with Good Morning America, Tinetti said: "After that moment, we were so tight. We started hanging out. We would go out for drinks, for dinner. We started dressing alike.
"I thought she was cool. We just kind of hit it off right away, It was very natural."
In the video below, the women recount their incredible story:Tinetti explained that she and Madison's coworkers often said that their pair looked like they could be sisters, however, when they decided to compare their adoption papers, the documents didn't match up.
"Papers said we were from two different cities [with] different last names. And, our mothers' names on our paperwork were different," Tinetti said.
As the pair continued to examine their births, timelines, and resemblance, they felt convinced that their similarity was more than just a coincidence.
Both women were adopted shortly after their births, with Tinetti being born in 1989 in the Dominican Republic, and Madison being born a year earlier in 1988 - also in the Dominican Republic.
In their interview with Good Morning America, Madison said that she was convinced they were sisters despite their unmatched adoption papers.
Madison moved from Connecticut to Virginia Beach in 2015, but the two women remained friends on social media.
Then, for Christmas 2018, Madison was gifted a 23andMe DNA genetic testing kit.
"I did not know that you can find a relative, so that was very much a shock," Madison said when the test matched her to a number of distant relatives.
Tinetti's childhood friend, Molly Sapadin, 31, however, was the person who put the final piece of the puzzle together.
She was adopted from the Dominican Republic after her birth in 1990, and her adopted mother was friends with Tinetti's.
Sapadin then began to compare their adoption paperwork, speculating that they could be half-sisters as their documents showed that they had the same surname and the same person listed as their mother.
A DNA text went on to reveal that Madison is her third cousin and not her sister as thought.
"I'm so excited to be a part of a huge family I didn't know about," she said.
Tinetti's mother is listed at Sapadin's on her adoption papers, however, further DNA testing is required in order to ascertain whether or not she is her biological mother.
"I don't know why I have the adoption records that said her mom was my mom, we don't know," Sapadin said.
Madison instead found out about her connection with her first cousin through DNA, and this is how she discovered her biological father, Adriano Luna Collado.
Her biological mother sadly died in 2015 following a heart attack.
"On top of the DR being a very poor country, they couldn't take care of us," Tinetti explained. "I was [born] 17 months later and they weren't ready."
Madison then asked her father if she had another sibling once Sapadin was ruled out from being her sister.
"[Her father] said, 'It was just a difficult time for your mom and I. So, I don't like to talk about it. I don't like to think about it.'"
He then revealed that they did place another child up for adoption and Madison went on to encourage Tinetti to take a DNA test.
Then, on January 28, their original hunch was proven correct: the two women are indeed biological sisters!
"It's exciting. We've got one more sister," Madison said. "Especially since Julia [Tinetti] and I were already friends."
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